


It's Just a Flesh Wound

by kingdomfaraway



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Broken Bones, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Irondad & Spiderson, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Trying His Best, Peter Parker is a Mess, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24291709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingdomfaraway/pseuds/kingdomfaraway
Summary: The thing is, Peter doesn’t want to keep his injuries a secret. It’s not a stupid pride thing, he gave up feeling embarrassed the day he swung through the city in skin-tight spandex. He also does not have a death wish, he understands his limits completely and he’s not going to push himself beyond it.The real issue is that everyone always worries about him. For as long as Peter can remember he’s been the poor little orphan boy, whose parents died when he was too young to remember them. And then he was the poor little smart kid who stutters when he’s nervous. And then the poor little guy who now just lost his Uncle right in front of him.It makes him feel helpless and broken like when people see him, they just want to fix him. But he doesn’t need to be fixed. He’s perfectly fine the way he is.
Relationships: Tony Stark & Peter Parker
Comments: 11
Kudos: 174
Collections: Oh My IronDad and SpiderSon Heart!





	It's Just a Flesh Wound

**Author's Note:**

> The time frame for this story is that magical endless stretch of time after Homecoming but before anything bad actually happens to anyone.

The thing is, Peter doesn’t want to keep his injuries a secret. It’s not a stupid pride thing, he gave up feeling embarrassed the day he swung through the city in skin-tight spandex. He also does not have a death wish, he understands his limits completely and he’s not going to push himself beyond it. 

The real issue is that everyone always worries about him. For as long as Peter can remember he’s been the poor little orphan boy, whose parents died when he was too young to remember them. And then he was the poor little smart kid who stutters when he’s nervous. And then the poor little guy who now just lost his Uncle right in front of him. 

It makes him feel helpless and broken like when people see him, they just want to fix him. But he doesn’t need to be fixed. He’s perfectly fine the way he is. 

The thing that Peter always thought about is that when his parents died, Ben lost his brother and gained a child. Ben had to give up his grief to take care of Peter and that bothers him. It’s conflicting because he loves Ben and May. But he always thought he took something from. And then when Ben died, he stole that away from May, she had to be there for Peter. It wasn’t fair to her, he should have been the one taking care of her. 

So when he gets hurt, he keeps it to himself. And logically Peter knows that May would take care of him in a heartbeat but she doesn’t have to. Especially not after the spider bite, he’s got no reason for her to patch him up.

Peter made a clear distinction in his mind about it. His family loves him and they make sure he’s happy and healthy. When Peter’s hurt, he’s making his family hurt too. He’s Spider-man to save people, not to make May worry. 

The suit Mr. Stark gave him, while amazing and wonderful it also alerts Mr. Stark when Peter’s hurt and he hates that more than anything. He hates having to hear Karen say it and then having to hear Mr. Stark’s voice annoyed and worried calling in on him. 

The first time it happens, it’s a stupid accident. Peter’s already gotten the bad guys webbed up, he was on his way out of the scene when he miscalculated the strength of the metal bar he latched his web onto. When he went to swing the bar snapped and sent him falling. He was able to save himself but it was at the cost of slamming into the side of a building. He had his hand at an awkward angle, his wrist was out facing when it hit the wall. Peter heard a snap the second he made the impact.

It was the first broken bone he encountered after being Spider-man and he was genuinely surprised he actually could break one. He’d done so much worse before and things seemed good. He took a minute of self-pity before using webbing to make himself a brace and sling. A little sticky, but it was good enough to allow him to swing one-armed back home.

Karen didn’t even ask him, she just called Mr. Stark right away and before Peter could get out of the conversation, Mr. Stark was on the phone.

“Karen says you’ve got a broken wrist, you alright?”

“Yeah, Mr. Stark. I’m fine, all good.”

“A broken wrist isn’t all good, kid. Do you want me to send someone to bring you to the compound?”

“Nah, it’ll heal overnight. I’m basically already home.”

He tried to hang up but the protocols wouldn’t actually allow him to hang up on Mr. Stark. It was annoying, which was funny because a few months ago Peter would have never thought of wanting to hang up on Tony Stark. 

“You sure? It’s not a big-”

“I’m sure, I’m home now. Good night Mr. Stark.”

“Alright, kid. Goodnight.”

And it was fine. Peter’s web cast and sling worked fine and he went to sleep. Sure it was a somewhat uncomfortable night’s sleep, but in the morning when he moved it back and forth it only hurt a little. 

===

The next week Peter practically begged Ned to help him remove the ‘Tis But A Scratch Protocol. 

“Peter,” Ned said in a voice that sounded way too like the overprotective adults in his life, “I’m not disabling something that can help you if you’re dying!”

“Nooo,” Peter pressed, “that’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying we can tone it down, is all. Set limits. If I scrape my knee I don’t need Mr. Stark sending Iron Man to give me a band-aide.”

Ned gave Peter an amazed look as if his lifelong dream was to have Iron Man treat his boo-boos. “I thought you wanted Tony Stark to pay attention to you?”

“Yeah, I do but not because I hurt myself or something. I just want him to pay attention to me when I’m doing something really cool or smart or good.”

The look Ned gave him suggested to Peter that he didn’t think that was possible but a second later he agreed to at least look at the coding. It took them a little longer than it did the first time around, but Peter was able to get into the suit without setting off any alerts. Tony had put a heck of a lot more protocols into the suit. Apparently underestimating Peter once was a lesson he learned.

However, Peter and Ned had the advantage of being both smart and teenagers who like to get away with things. So they figured it out quickly and were watching endless lines of code pass by before they knew it.

“Huh,” Ned said, squinting at the screen, “so I guess there is something I can do. I mean, Tony Stark is really smart and he might see past this. You know in heist movies when they play a video of the bank vault over and over again while the real heist is happening so if anyone is watching, they won’t notice?”

“You’re going to do that with me? Wouldn’t Mr. Stark notice if I was doing the same thing every single night?”

“Well, not exactly. I’m going to trick Karen into thinking your vitals are the same thing no matter what,” he said, clicking away at the keyboard already, “although I am putting in a fail-safe. So if and when you get yourself stabbed or shot, Karen will call Mr. Stark.”

“Ned,” Peter whined, “I can handle getting stabbed. And shot. And if it was bad enough, I can call Mr. Stark myself.”

Ned flicked his eyes over to Peter but didn’t stop typing. “You do realize that I know you, right? I was friends with you when you waited two whole months to tell someone about your stomach pain. You remember that situation?”

Peter sighed. “Yes, okay, so I ended up in the ER to get my gallbladder out. In my defense, I ate a lot of junk food. I thought I just had a stomach ache, is all.”

“Peter, you threw up after eating pizza, and then came back, ate more pizza, and then threw up again. Might I add the second time, you were laying on the bathroom floor very clearly in a lot of pain and you still kept insisting you were fine. May and I were going to sedate you if you didn’t go to the hospital.”

Ned was exaggerating, Peter was fine. He just had endlessly stabbing stomach pain and constant vomiting. It was no big deal, he was handling it pretty well before the day in question. The gallbladder came out easily, it was an outpatient surgery. 

Despite his concerns, Ned came through and adjusted the ‘Tis But A Scratch protocol.

===

Without really wanting to, Peter was able to test it out the following day. This time, it wasn’t his fault he got hurt. The mugger had come at Peter with a knife and while he was successful in avoiding it, the guy got lucky and managed to drag the knife along Peter’s arm. While Peter’s suit was made of very strong fabric, the knife cut through and sliced Peter from his elbow to almost his wrist. It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t too deep. He managed to grab the guy a second later, the mugger actually looked pretty shocked he managed to get Spider-man and that second of distraction was enough to web him up.

When he finished and started to try and stop the bleeding, he waited patiently for Karen to say something. He decided to risk it. “Hey Karen, anything, uh wrong with me?”

“No Peter, you seem to be in good health. Is there anything wrong with you? Would you like me to let Mr. Stark know?”

“No, no. All good. Thanks. However, just wondering, can you pull up info on stitches while we’re on our way home?”

“Sure Peter.”

Peter decided against stitches, things were fine by the next morning anyway. He sported a long white angry scar for a few days and then it was gone completely. 

====

Peter went on, getting mildly injured but Karen never once tried to call Mr. Stark. Peter had a feeling he was going to notice something was weird and true to his thoughts, he tried to call Peter out on it. He had lured Peter over to work on some suit modifications but cut to the chase before Peter even sat down.

“So, looks like you’ve managed not to get hurt on patrol in a while.”

“Yeah,” Peter replied, “I’m pretty good at this stuff now.”

Tony’s eyebrows got very high and Peter got very annoyed. “Sure, kid. I mean, we all mess up sometimes. I’m just saying, it’s sort of odd.”

“Well, now you’ve managed to jinx me, Mr. Stark. Next time I go out, I might get stabbed.”

The look on Tony’s face faltered for a moment but then he sat down at the workbench near Peter. “I just want to make sure you and your hacker friend didn’t make any unauthorized changes.”

Peter gave him an over the top shocked face, with added dramatic gasp. “Me? Unauthorized changes? You must have confused me for someone else, Mr. Stark.”

Tony eyed him. “I think I liked it better when you were too scared to make complete sentences around me.”

Peter shrugged and started to get this suit ready, Tony didn’t bring it up again.

====

Peter had been watching the group of four guys for a while before he decided to make this move. There had been some random alien weapons going around, leftovers from Tooms, and Peter was determined to get the rest of them taken care of. He worked hard on this one, followed leads, and stayed in the back until he had the full picture. And now, he thought he did.

He had followed them to a location in Queens, an abandoned housing unit. It was still early in the evening, Peter always assumed bad guys did things in the dead of night only, but here he was, barely even dusk out and these guys were making deals. 

He planned to wait and see what was going to happen before getting involved. His lesson from Tony was still fresh in his mind. Don’t mess things up, make sure you know what you’re doing. He’s sure the other plan was to tell an Adult, but Peter would tell an Adult. After he webbed them up with a nice big bow.

Things started to get good quickly, boxes and money were being exchanged. He could see these things happening and once everything seemed finished he made his move.

He swung down and landed in front of everyone, he had a really good opening quip to make, but he didn’t even get the chance. The guys had guns out and were shooting within seconds.

“Hey!” Peter should, dodging bullets and rolling on the ground. “Aren’t you guys supposed to talk to me before shooting? Have you never seen an action movie in your life?”

A bullet whizzed by his arm, it clipped him just a little. “This is uncalled for.” 

Peter made several split-second decisions that were going pretty successful (bullets dodged, two guys webbed up) until he went for one of the taller guys, coming straight at him with the gun pointed. He managed to connect his web to the gun and pulled hard, sending the gun out of the guy’s hand.

It would have worked fine if the guy hadn’t managed to pull the trigger as the weapon flew out of his hands. Even with his spider-sense, it happened far too fast for Peter to move completely out of the way. The bullet hit him, somewhere to the right of his hip. 

The pain was immediate and intense. Peter dropped to the ground as the gunman stumbled forward towards him. One of the guys took the opportunity to try and continue to shoot Peter, he was barely able to roll out of the way. “Rude,” he said a little winded, “I’m already down, dude.”

The guy didn’t seem to care in the least and with all the strength Peter could muster, he started shooting webs at his face with one hand. The other he had instinctive put over where the bullet had hit him. He managed to cover the guy’s eyes and then while the guy was freaking out about that, he got him stuck against a wall. It wasn’t his best work, but it was enough.

With every bit of movement he made, Peter’s insides were not happy with him. He felt like he was one of those guys who shallow knives on fire. He tried to get up, but the pain in his midsection felt like it forced him to hunch over instead.

He only had one dude left, but Peter’s instincts were telling him to get up and get out. He just had to get to higher ground. He tried to move his hand away from his stomach, but he suddenly had the irrational fear that if he did, his insides would come out. 

Thankfully the guy didn’t have his gun anymore, but he somehow managed to have a knife on him.

“You brought both a gun and a knife?” Peter questioned, his voice sounding a lot rougher than he intended it to. He started pushing himself away, scrambling on his butt. He tried again to stand up but any movement was pure agony and he could only get up on his knees. 

The guy didn’t give him a break, he was almost on Peter in a matter of seconds. Peter tried to roll, while he moved himself the pain was so intense he couldn’t complete it and the guy managed to cut his arm. It wasn’t very hard or deep, but it just added to the pain of the whole thing.

Peter kicked towards the guy, somehow managed to connect with his legs and sent him to the ground. He fell a little to Peter’s right, but it was enough. 

This was it, Peter realized, get up to the roof or die here. The pain was so bad at this point, it didn’t really matter that Peter finally got his hand away from his stomach (things stayed on the inside thankfully, except for blood) and shot towards the roof. With very little actual grace, he was able to pull himself up. 

The next few minutes were a blur of webbing and Peter screaming at the top of his lungs with every movement. And then it was over and he was sitting on an abandoned fire escape with very little idea as to how he managed it. At least he was high enough from the fight he couldn’t even see where he had left the bad guys anymore. He was at least two buildings over and he wondered how much blood he just spilled over the city block. He felt bad that someone would have to clean that up later.

“Karen,” Peter asked, “am I okay?” He knew the answer but Karen didn’t seem to be calling Mr. Stark for help yet.

“You appear to be in perfect health, Peter. Is something wrong?”

Peter started laughing, okay well, Ned did a really good job with his hacking. He was starting to feel a little weirder than before, the adrenaline from the fight wore off and was replaced with waves of tiredness and pain. 

He took a second to finally look at his side, the bullet entered on his right side close to his hip. He could see the hole in his suit where a large amount of blood was still spilling from. He tried to turn his head and see if there was an exit womb, but the attempt at twisting sent a lot more pain. The blood was coming out a lot faster than Peter had originally thought. He attempted to pull himself up a little better but instead gagged and then vomited half on his lap and half on the ground. 

“Gross,” he said, turning his head and spitting, “okay so, I think I need help now.”

Karen didn’t respond. “Uh, Karen, can you please call Mr. Stark?”

“Sure Peter, hold on.”

The phone started ringing and ringing and then, his voicemail. “Ugh, hang up,” he said and then, “no wait, I better leave a message. Call again.”

Karen called again but no answer. “Hi Mr. Stark, it’s Peter. Can you call me back? I really need some help.”

The pain in Peter’s stomach didn’t waiver but now the tiredness was starting to push him further down. It was also getting really cold all of a sudden. His head started to feel too heavy to even hold up. 

“Uh, Karen?” Peter asked he felt out of breath by just talking, “Do you go into shock after you get shot?”

“Yes Peter, going into shock is very common after a gunshot wound. Are you going into shock, Peter?” Karen sounded so casual like she was asking Peter what song he wanted to listen to next.

Peter laughed again. “I might. So, can we try Mr. Stark again? Until he answers this time?”

He started to breathe heavily as Karen kept trying to make the call, it just kept ringing. It wasn’t even that late. The longer he sat, the worse his head was feeling, and the colder he felt. He knew what was happening, he was bleeding out and going into shock. What was he going to do now? He could call May or even Ned but how would they even help him at this point? He wasn’t even sure if he could tell them where he even was. 

“So, Karen,” He finally asked after her 10th attempt at call Tony, “is there any emergency protocol you can do or something?”

“Is there an emergency Peter? My systems show you are in good health. Mr. Stark does not want you to initiate an emergency unless there is one.”

Peter closed his eyes, laying his head back against the railing. “Yeah, this would be an emergency.”

This time when Karen called, the phone rang twice and Tony picked up. “Karen says you aren’t dying, so this emergency better not be advice on dating or homework help. I am in the -”

“I got shot and it isn’t good,” Peter blurted out, he really didn’t have time for Tony to talk to him. “I need help.”

Tony made some weird sounds and then. “Is your suit malfunctioning?”

“Uh, yeah, maybe. I just really need help, please, Mr. Stark.”

Peter felt his heart start racing just a little more than it was before and he knew that Tony was still talking to him but he was having a hard time actually learning his words.

“Sorry, Mr. Stark,” he managed. Some part of him must have known he was going to be safe now, so he let the darkness creeping over his brain pull him under.

====

Peter drifted in and out of awareness thereafter. Mostly around the times where someone was moving him around or shouting at him. He didn't really see anything but he assumed things were going his way. He started feeling warm after a while and soon the pain was fading.

When he did finally wake up, he was in a very unfamiliar room. It didn’t take long to realize he was hooked up to an IV and was clearly in some kind of hospital gown. The pain in his stomach was almost gone, instead, he just felt dull and heavy. It took him almost 10 minutes to realize May was sleeping in a chair off to the side.

He wanted to call out to her, but didn’t, the time on the clock was nearly 5 am. She must have been here the whole night with him. He remembered what had happened, the fight with the guys, getting shot, calling Tony. May must have been beside herself with worry and Peter felt a wave of regret wash over him. 

He debated on whether or not he’d try to get up and take a walk. He was feeling very stupid and embarrassed that he had to be rescued. That he had to even call Tony to come to get him. He felt stupid for messing with the suit too, this wasn’t a result he was looking for. He just wanted Tony not to worry about the small things. There was some happy medium that Peter had to find, where he wasn’t being babied but he was getting help when he needed it. 

He decided to get up and take a walk, he needed to move and think about what just happened. He swung his feet over the bed and very carefully adjusted his IV, so it didn’t get pulled out. He could take the bag with him, he was sure if he took it off someone would come running. He wasn’t attached to any other things, thankfully. 

Taking the IV bag off the stand, he lowered his feet to the ground. A slight wave of dizziness washed over him, but otherwise, he felt okay. He knew his body was healing himself, a walk wouldn’t do much damage - or so he figured. 

He took a few careful steps towards the door of the room, he opened it and looked out in an empty hallway. It was the Avengers Compound or at least, it looked like it. The hallways were pretty nondescript looking. He ventured out, turning to check on May one last time, still sleeping soundly. A wave of guilt washed over him and remembered seeing curled up in the armchair at the house after Ben had died. She had a tightness in her face as if she couldn’t relax, even when she was sleeping. May has done so much for him, she didn’t ask to raise a child, she didn’t ask for her husband to die, she didn’t ask for her nephew to become a superhero and yet, she has to deal with all of it. And here Peter was, trying to protect her from all of it and he just managed to upset her even more. 

He didn’t really even need her to be mad at him, he was made enough at himself. 

He walked down the hallway, the bare floor cold to his feet. He didn’t have a place to go in mind, but he wanted to go outside somewhere. He needed space to think, space to figure out how he could fix all of the mistakes he made recently. 

After a few minutes of walking down a hallway (and not seeing a single person to his surprise), he found a set of doors that lead into a small balcony off the side of the building. The doors weren’t locked (also to his surprise) so he walked out and stood against the balcony. It was overlooking the vast lawn of the compound. It was cold outside, the sun wasn’t coming up just yet but the world felt like it was almost ready to start up again.

Peter didn’t know how long he’d been standing there, but suddenly the doors opened behind him and he turned his head. 

Tony Stark was standing at the door frame. He looked at Peter and without a word, came over and stood next to him. Peter didn’t move, he was just going to wait for Tony to start yelling again. He knew what was coming up.

“So,” Tony started, “I’m going to say some stuff now. You’re going to stand here with your mouth zipped. Not a single sound until I’m finished and I need you to listen to what I’m saying to you.”

Tony paused and Peter determinedly looked straight ahead. 

“You could have died tonight. I think at this point, you’ve realized that. I know you don’t have a death wish. I know you’re smart and you are capable but I also need you to know that people care about you and love you.”

Peter frowned, he wasn’t really expecting this speech from Tony Stark. The same Tony Stark took his suit away from him because he was just trying to be helpful. He was doing the right thing then and he got yelled at, but now he clearly did the wrong thing and he’s getting a lovey-dovey speech? 

Peter opened his mouth but Tony was quicker. “I said no talking until I am done. You see kid, I know who you are. You want to help the entire world but you don’t want anyone to help you. I thought I told you once before, I wanted you to be better than me. And this, turning off your emergency protocol so you could do whatever you want, is not better than me. It’s very on-brand for me.”

“That’s not why I did it. You just don’t understand,” Peter finally blurted out, Tony didn’t really know him. He didn’t know anything about Peter or his life. 

Tony sighed. “Alright then, explain this to me.”

Peter opened his mouth and faltered. He’s never had to explain this to anyone before and he never thought he’d have to explain this to Tony Stark.

“Everyone always worries about me. That’s like, everyone’s favorite thing to do. It’s been that way since I could remember. When I was seven, not too long after my parents died, Ben and May took me to a park and I fell like a stupid kid does. I ended up needing stitches and I can still remember how terrified Ben and May looked. They had just taken me in and I returned the favor by needing stitches.”

“Kid, your Aunt loves-”

“I let you talk, please?” Peter finally turned and looked at Tony Stark. And it hits him in a very weird way because he’s now yelling at Iron Man. In his own house. “Sorry.”

Tony made a go on gesture. 

“I know they love me, of course, I know that. That’s the problem. I’ve seen the people I love hurt so much, I can’t even think about being the one who does it. Do you remember what I told you when we first met? When you asked me why? Because I can protect people now and not worry about what happens to me. I didn’t intend for it to not call you, I just didn’t want the whole world to know when I got so much as a hangnail.”

Tony sighed very loudly but Peter didn’t look away, he wanted Tony to see what he was saying and to understand why this was important. 

“Kid, I’m shit at this, just a heads up. The irony in me having this conversation with you, it’s off the charts. I’m much better at the anger part, which I’m sure you’re aware of. But I’m learning and attempting this growing as a human thing people keep harping on me about. You don’t need to protect people you love from protecting you. Everyone, even half spider kids, needs someone to take care of them. You said it yourself, May loves you. Your nerdy friend loves you. Happy was even worried about you, that’s saying something kiddo. You are not a burden on anyone. I get that I didn’t help with that feeling before but look, I’m going to try. We’ll work on this together, I’ll keep the door opened, you just have to walk through it when you need to and stop being sorry about it.”

Peter looked away and took a few deep breaths. “I’m trying really hard not to say sorry right now. But sorry. This whole thing just got so messed up so fast. I want to help people, I don’t want to make it worse for anyone. I didn’t expect this to happen, honestly Mr. Stark. I actually called you for help, remember? I’m no stupid, I knew the situation was bad. I know I made this so much worse for May now. I hate this, no matter how hard I try to do the right thing I keep messing up.”

All of the anger Peter felt was gone already. He felt tired and completely out of gas. He didn’t get this mad often, he rarely even yelled at people. Everything was just making him more exhausted now. His entire body still hurt, he wished he hadn’t gotten up and away from the nice warm bed. 

“I know you can handle it, you’ve proven to me that you are far more capable of handling things than I ever thought. The thing is you don’t have to handle this by yourself anymore. You’ve got a team of people to help you. Why don’t you start coming to the lab after school? We can work on our suit and maybe some other things.”

Peter sighed. “Oh, no Mr. Stark. I’m going to be grounded for the rest of my life. I haven’t even talked to May yet, but I can already hear her.”

Tony laughed. “Well, maybe we can talk about a prison work program. You come here and I make sure you don’t cause any trouble? Your suit needs to be fixed, so you’ll be out of commission for a while there anyway.”

Peter winced. “Uh, sorry. Is it bad?”

“Nah,” Tony said, “I’ve done much worse. Why don’t we go back inside?”

Peter turned and started to walk, but suddenly felt a little unsteady. Tony grabbed his elbow and for a second Peter almost pulled it away but instead let Tony keep him steady as they walked back to his room.  
  
  



End file.
